The Queen of the Heart
The Queen of the Heart is a 1978 Lovian-issued album of Anais Gul Pozo songs, produced and released by Lovilago Music under the direction of Patrick Dufour. It was a bold move by the nascent record label, to release music by an artist largely unknown in Lovia and much of North America. Released in August 1978 in Lovia and distributed by RCA in the United States, it became a hit for Lovilago, and for Gul Pozo brought her some level of success in Lovia, leading to new public performances and a concert tour in Lovia, and a return to new music in the 1980s. Background Anais Gul Pozo was a successful singer of traditional Barzuna music, known for being very passionate, and placed in the same vein as contemporaries Edith Piaf and Amália Rodrigues. Her success in the early 1960s led to a number of excellent albums and sold-out concerts well into the 1970s. But, the desires of her record label, Vogue, to rehash lots of her earlier hits and her being in a creative rut saw a number of sub-par albums and EPs released after 1970, and her abandoning music in 1975. Lovilago, founded in 1976, was attempting to add albums by established European singers to their repertoire to build name credibility and bring in sales. Founder Patrick Dufour engaged in talks to make a North American album of Fado singer Amália Rodrigues or British pop star Sandie Shaw, but these fell through. It was through Dufour's mother, Martha, that an Anais album was brought up in mid-1977. Vogue, still looking to make money from Anais' music, readily agreed in exchange for 18% in royalties. When informed of the album in late 1977, Anais quickly objected and said she would not agree to it. Told the album was already being produced (a lie told to her by the record label), she eventually relented in exchange for 10% of any future royalties and a new contract which would leave her free to veto the songs put into her albums. Production No new material was planned for the album, and instead it was decided to make a compilation of her English-language songs from In English (overdubbed with strings) and other 1970s songs in Barzuna, including unreleased material from 1971 planned for but not included in Renna nal Cor. Dufour was heavily involved in the production, along with Herman Grosvenor, who was invovled with mixing and giving the songs a more modern sound. For the album design, Dufour hired Gregory York (the uncle of pop artist David York and noted for his albums for The Dynas) to design the cover, giving it an elegant (for the 1970s) velvet photo background and a small portrait of Anais in the center, taken off her 1966 album Jitanes Barzuno. Dufour titled the album The Queen of the Heart, a translation of a nickname Anais had acquired. Release and reception The album was released in August 1978 after a period of publicity by Lovilago. Sales were slow initially but in 1979 picked up as Lovilago began to publicize and compare her to Edith Piaf, somewhat of an overstatement but not by much. Among music connaisseurs, the album was praised for its overall good production and modernization of more classic songs. A deal was struck with RCA to distribute the album in the United States. By the end of 1979, over 12,000 albums were sold in Lovia and 15,000 in the United States, and the success of the album prompted more pressings. The Queen of the Heart was never released in Brunant, though the album's re-recording of Jitana was included in The Great Hits of Anais Gul Pozo in 1979. Legacy The success of the album led Anais to perform in small concerts in Brezonde and Cape Cross in 1979, and due to newfound fans in Lovia, a concert tour was planned for Lovia in 1980. In April 1980 she performed in Noble City, Newhaven, Sofasi and Hurbanova. She would continue to give concerts in Lovia, in 1983, 1987, and most recently in 1991. Her 1987 performance, in which she sung with East Hills singer Gregior Hustróva, was released as a bilingual Barzuna-Oshenna live album. Category:Album Category:Lovilago Music